Left Archive: Rise Launch Press Release, RISE (Radical, Internationalist, Socialist and Environmentalist), 2019 November 18, 2019
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To download the above please click on the following link. rise-2019.pdf
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Many thanks to Alan Kinsella/ of Irish Election Literature for forwarding this to the Archive, the first document in the Archive from RISE, the new formation established by a group around Paul Murphy TD, formerly of the Socialist Party. The document is self-explanatory, distributed at the press conference announcing their formation, where Alan was able to acquire it, and outlining the reasons for their move from that party and their goals and priorities.
After a year-long debate within the Socialist Party, we have decided to leave and to establish a new democratic socialist political group, RISE. The four letters of RISE give a picture of the politics we stand for: Radical, Internationalist, Socialist and Environmentalist.
It notes:
Our members have joined and are helping to build Extinction Rebellion. We will work alongside hundreds of other activists for the most effective ‘Rebellion Week’ of civil disobedience in October as part of building the mass movement necessary to stop climate change.
And:
One of our key priorities as a group will be to prepare and launch a Green New Deal with socialist policies for Ireland. At this moment of ecological, social and economic crises, a transformative plan is needed – for free, green and frequent public transport, for a rapid and just transition to green energy, including a green jobs programme in renewable energy and care work, for a sustainable model of agriculture that supports our small farmers, for quality low carbon de-commodified public housing, a 4 day week, and a planned economy under the democratic control of working class people.
It also offers this for the future:
We will be building RISE as a radical socialist organisation and producing a regular political magazine and website with analysis and commentary (www.letusrise.ie). We also want to contribute to the building of a broader mass party of the left, with a vibrant democratic culture of debate and discussion. This is desperately needed to challenge and end neo-liberal and capitalist domination, which, with its drive to privatise and cut back, has prioritised the needs of big business and the market over our lives and our future.
Please note: If files have been posted for or to other online archives previously we would appreciate if we could be informed of that. We always wish to credit same where applicable or simply provide links.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
From the recap of a recent meeting of RISE:
All of that spot on, IMO.
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What is the point of taking big agri-business into public ownership in order to transition away from dairy & beef given that the bulk of the big agri-business in the country is concerned with the production of beef & dairy, are the fixed assets of Goodman or the Kerry group relevant to the production of alternative agricultural products in anyway?
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There’s some interesting questions. I’d be fascinated by Rises response
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I think you’d take them into public ownership and then split them up into smaller units, rented from the public land ownership trustees.
The tenancy agreement would specify the kind of agriculture the tenants should pursue, and what their duties are in terms of preserving biological diversity, ground water quality, planting for flood prevention etc. etc.
Tenancies could be passed down from mother to daughter to maintain continuity – providing the tenants fulfill democratically determined food production and environmental goals.
There’s no getting round the needed to disappropriate big agri. But’s that’s happened before in Europe.
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Big agri-business in the dairy and beef sectors are primarily processors and wholesalers of what is produced on other people’s farms – their assets are primarily slaughter-houses, creameries, and research stations related to beef and dairy (though Kerry group also has a non-dairy wing I think) – that is what they are about. Goodman does own a very big farm – but it is actually used for tillage. In any case even the largest farms occupy only a small proportion of farmland (and I’d guess the largest farms by acre are not actually in beef or dairy). In other words putting big agri-business into public ownership would have little impact on landownership but would mean the state owned a lot of machinery for producing steaks, butter etc…. – which do not seem very useful acquisitions for making a transition away from beef and dairy.
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Ah – got what you mean you Terry – you’re right. I’d like to see a breakdown of farm size and ownership. How many are owned by private equity firms, for example?
However there are ranchers, along with the associated fertilizer, pesticide and herbicide interests under the Goodman level that need breaking up, which is what I understood as agri-business
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“Beef production from grass is one of Irish farming’s greatest strengths. Ireland’s best asset for beef production is our 1.1 million beef suckler cow herd kept on just under 80,000 farms.”
http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/life-society/farming/farming-in-ireland-overvi/beef-farming/
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Well, I’m no expert on the agriculture industry. But I know a dairy farmer who is very engaged and active in the sector – not just their own farm but as a ‘leader’ in the sector.
They told me recently that they believe the Irish govt has made a strategic decision that beef production won’t be viable in Ireland in the future the way it has been up to now. Thus, the Irish signup for the Mercosur trade agreement between Sth America and the EU; ref also the recent pickets of meat factories by beef producers.
If true, I’d see this as similar to the decision to abandon the fishing industry when we joined the EU.
So anyway, this dairy farmer acquaintance of mine seems to be saying that dairy is the only sector that will be viable in the future. So good dairy land in the south and east will have dairy farms but the less-good land in the west and elsewhere … I dunno, they get rewilded with wolves n stuff and tourism becomes the number one industry?
On tafkaGW’s question “How many are owned by private equity firms, for example?”. Again, I stand to be corrected, but afaik very few. Farms are still almost totally family-owned enterprises here.
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